Five women pray Wednesday morning in front of a duplex in the 3100 block of N. 15th St. for a 49-year-old homicide victim and for peace in the central city of Milwaukee.

Five women stood in front of a duplex in the 3100 block of N. 15th St. on Wednesday morning to pray for a 49-year-old homicide victim they had never known and for peace in the central city of Milwaukee that they describe as violence-torn.

Joe Mitchell Henderson died Nov. 27 at Froedtert Hospital in Wauwatosa from complications of a head injury he suffered 11 days earlier, according to an investigation report released Wednesday by the Milwaukee County medical examiner.

His skull had been fractured after being struck with a crowbar, the report says. Henderson had been drinking alcohol with a few friends inside his apartment on that Friday evening.

At some point that night, Henderson complained that there were too many people in the apartment and he argued with another man there, the report says. The man told police Henderson had a gun so he threw a crowbar at Henderson in self-defense, according to the report.

Joyce Ellwanger said she joined the prayer vigil for Henderson sponsored by Milwaukee Inner-city Congregations Allied for Hope to raise her voice against violence and the ever-growing list of victims it begets.

"We pray to declare violence unacceptable and unjust," said Ellwanger, a member of Hephatha Lutheran Church. "We pray for the gift of peace of heart and mind for families of victims."

Another reason the prayer vigil was held outside Henderson's apartment was to bring attention to his death since the Milwaukee Police Department had not officially listed him as a homicide victim, according to Sister Rose Stietz with St. Martin De Porres Catholic Church.

The medical examiner's report is unequivocal, listing homicide as the manner of his death. The report states the Milwaukee County district attorney's office on Nov. 19, before Henderson's death, initially ruled the incident as self-defense. A medical examiner's definition of homicide is a death at the hands of another - different from the standard for prosecution by the district attorney, who could consider self-defense or other factors.

Even so, the police department had not released information on the Nov. 16 incident as of Wednesday morning.

Henderson's nickname in the neighborhood was Joe-Joe, according to an employee at Mr. F's Foods at N. 15 St. and W. Ring St.

Joe-Joe was a regular customer and the store posted a flier announcing Henderson's Dec. 3 funeral at Northwest Funeral Chapel. The employee said he had heard about the crowbar assault.

The block south of the store where Henderson lived is on the border of the Bellview Heights and Borchert Field neighborhoods. At least a dozen boarded up homes line N. 15th St. within shouting distance of the store.

A person inside Mr. F's Foods on Wednesday morning said the area should be called "body-bag neighborhood," in reference to the mounting number of homicides. He and the employee declined to be identified.

About Don Behm

Don Behm reports on Milwaukee County government, Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, the environment and communities in southeastern Wisconsin. He has won reporting awards for investigations of Great Lakes water pollution, Milwaukee's cryptosporidiosis outbreak, and the deaths of three sewer construction workers in a Menomonee Valley methane explosion.